The South Shields specialists in industrial coatings have secured a portion of the Finance for Business North East Growth Fund

Tyneport Coatings has secured a £170,000 investment and now aims to double its production team.

The South Shields-based firm’s new management team turned to NEL Fund Managers to secure the Finance for Business North East Growth Fund investment, which will be used to help reach target turnover of £25m over the next five years.

Tyneport Coatings develop and manufacture high performance compounds and coatings used in the gas, oil, water, marine, construction and utilities, and can trace its roots back over 40 years.

The company has worked on a range of high profile projects, including waste water treatment outfalls around the UK coast. It has worked on the Thames Barrier, the London Docklands development, the Suez Canal and the Dublin Bay outfall project.

Managing director Les Hodgson and technical director Jason Fairbairn took control of the firm at the end of 2013, and since then a programme of upgrades has taken place, including investments in plant, facilities and staff development.

Tyneport Coatings’ compounds are used for coating and protecting a wide range of products, including pipelines, tanks, offshore structures, pilings, decks, bridges, industrial buildings, concrete and steelwork. As well as offering its own product range, it also provides ‘white label’ manufacturing services.

Mr Hodgson said: “This is a strong business with a highly-skilled workforce and an excellent industry reputation and track record, and there’s every opportunity for us to build on this over the coming years.

“The quality of the products that we supply is evidenced by the importance of the projects in which we they’ve previously been used, both in the UK and overseas, and the programme of upgrades we’ve been implementing across the business will help us bring even more of these prestige contracts to the North East.

“We’ve had a lot of support from suppliers and customers, and the progress we’ve made since taking the business over gives us great encouragement that we’re only just beginning to realise Tyneport’s potential.

“The NEL team took a very flexible, professional approach to working with us, and we hope this is just the beginning of a relationship that will last as we go through different stages of development in the years to come.”

David Thomas, investment executive at NEL Fund Managers, added: “The Tyneport management team have a very clear vision of what they want the business to become, and have the commercial and sector expertise to make it happen - ambition like this deserves proper recognition, and we’re very pleased to be working with them.”

Aimed at regional businesses which are at a development and growth stage, the Growth Fund forms part of the wider Finance for Business North East Fund.

Managed by North East Finance, it will see £125m of investment capital injected into the region by the European Investment Bank and the European Regional Development Fund 2007-13 over a five year period.

NEL is looking to make around 130 investments over the five-year life span of the Growth Fund, and is actively looking to speak to ambitious companies in the North East with robust business plans.